Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
POLITICS IN 2019
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
AmalGanesha&SylvianaHamdani
The blasphemy case was seen as a test for diversity and democracy in
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. Indonesia has a
secular constitution but since the fall of the authoritarian New Order regime
in 1998 had allowed some regions to adopt Islamic law.
Muslim identity politics, as it has been used by the country’s politicians and
hardline Muslim groups, tends to stoke ethnic and religious sentiment.
Authorities now see it as a threat to Indonesia’s state ideology, the five-tenet
Pancasila, the first of which states “belief in one God,” but that overall
guarantees all citizens the right to worship any of the six religions officially
recognized by the state.
According to Keith Loveard, a Jakarta-based risk analyst who writes for the
Concord Review, many Indonesian Muslims may very well throw their
support behind a fellow Muslim as a leader, but historically they have
nevertheless been quite averse to the idea of an Islamic state.
“Every step since independence, they say they don’t want an Islamic state.
And I’m not convinced that proportion of voters has changed to any great
degree,” Loveard said in Jakarta on Sunday (13/08).
“As long as politicians only care about winning, they will always pit
nationalist and religious groups against each other [including in 2019],” Siti
told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.
“The question we need to ask should be, ‘Do the Indonesian people need a
new leader or not?’ and not, ‘How many Muslim voters will it take to win
you the election?'” she said.